The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has commenced two new investigations into taxiing conflicts at Sydney Airport.
In the first occurrence, on 16 August, a Virgin 737 that had landed on runway 16 left was taxiing north on taxiway B, while a Qantas 737 that had landed on runway 16 right was vacating the runway at taxiway B8.
ATC instructed the crew of the Virgin aircraft to give way to the Qantas aircraft, but this instruction was not read back by the crew of the Virgin aircraft, and air traffic control did not identify the incorrect readback. As the Qantas aircraft vacated the runway, the crew observed the Virgin aircraft approaching from the right, stopped their aircraft using normal braking, and clarified the taxiing sequence.
In the second occurrence, on the morning of 25 August, incomplete traffic information on taxiing aircraft was passed to a Jetstar Airbus A320 before push back at Sydney Airport. This resulted in a confliction with a second aircraft that was taxiing behind the A320. It was reported that the A320 push back crew identified the conflicting aircraft, a Bombardier Dash 8, and stopped the pushback before returning the aircraft to the gate.
The ATSB notes that in both occurrences there was no immediate risk of collision, with flight and ground crews assessing the circumstances and reacting appropriately.
As such key safety defences remained in place and the ATSB has not categorised the occurrences as near collisions, classifying both occurrences as safety “incidents”, rather than “serious incidents”.
The ATSB’s investigations will seek to provide assurances around the safety defences in place, and to establish or rule out any underlying safety issues and contributing factors common across the other incidents at Sydney Airport currently under investigation.
Currently the ATSB is investigating each incident separately, but with its investigation teams working closely together and coordinating their activities. Any decision to widen the scope of the investigations, or combine them, will be determined upon analysing the available evidence.
The evidence collection phases of the investigation will involve interviewing involved air traffic controllers, flight crew and ground crew, retrieving and reviewing available recorded data, and the collection of other relevant information.
The ATSB anticipates publishing preliminary reports on both investigations, outlining factual information, in about 6-8 weeks.
However, if at any time the investigation identifies a critical safety issue at any time the ATSB will immediately inform relevant stakeholders.